This is a thread to share the music and musicians that you have found out there that you think are underappreciated, or just really good and you'd like others to know about them. In this wonderful age where local musicians can develop a fan base all over the world, there are a lot of talented people who are just waiting to be found and enjoyed!
I will start with one of my favorite folk musicians:
Brad YoderBrad is a singer/songwriter based in Pittsburgh, PA. He is in his mid 40's and has 5 self-released albums available, as well as a fairly large catalog of songs that are unreleased, many of which are available for
download from his web-site. (There is a
link for unrecorded-songs, and many of them are downloadable if you click on the link for their lyrics. The released songs appear to all be playable in full from the web-site as well.)
Some of my favorites of his songs include:
Again - A song about broken hearts and recovering from them. A truly insightful piece of music with minor chord sensibilities and a very beautiful section with string accompaniment.
Selected Lyrics:
would someone break my heart again,
so it can mend the right way next time?
somewhere underneath my skin
you'll find a long and crooked fault line,
so break my heart, won't you break my heart again?..
at the end of one more day
we wonder where the time has fled to,
and all the well-laid plans I made
have turned up missing, so I ask you
to break my heart, won't you break my heart again,
so that I can see what I used to see,
find my way through all this static,
so that I can be more like I used to be,
back when joy was automatic, automatic.
How it Ends - from his latest album, this song is a lament on the economic hard times the Pittsburgh area is facing, but it has a more universal appeal. It is a great example of his ability to take everyday events and turn them into insight in to the human condition. The chorus is particularly good:
everyone's from somewhere, maybe you were born there,
and everybody knew you, knew the ones before,
pictures in the windows, the usual mementos,
it's on the tip of your tongue, waiting there to be sung:
home, call it home, where we're almost alone,
all my migrants and ghosts leave the holes I love most,
they're at home.
Immortal - From his 2nd most recent album, but a song that I had downloaded from his catalog a long time ago,
Immortal is a song that, as I have gotten older. It comes off as an older person trying to convince a young girl who is going through a "rebellious phase" and trying to convince them that their choices are self-destructive. There are some particularly clever lyrics, including the part I am now using as part of my signature. Here is the chorus:
if you were immortal I could understand your choices better,
Jupiter unfiltered, yeah, but we cannot control the weather,
falling isn't flying, it's the landing that makes all the difference..
if you were immortal, maybe if you were immortal?
The Back Way - An unreleased gem! This song is a love song to that amazing woman you dove into a relationship with, knowing it was doomed, but you couldn't help yourself because she was just too much fun to resist! It is told in a slice-of-life manner, and really has a great feeling of longing and admiration to it. I will just post the whole lyric, since I think it is fantastic:
she was always out somewhere lookin' for fun,
she thought that "don't walk" must mean run,
you knew the party had begun
when she showed up about a quarter to one,
something always shifted when she hit the room,
lookin' like a candidate for glory or doom,
everybody jockied for a better view,
I tried to keep her laughin' for an hour or 2,
she showed me the back way,
and it's much quicker than the interstate,
I knew that she would never stay,
but you take what you get from somebody like that..
drivin' into morning, crankin' through the sticks,
she stopped before the line for beer and brownie mix,
kissed me at the counter of the all-night store,
pointed to the camera when I asked what for, she said,
"if they're gonna film us, we should make this good,"
something in her voice I finally understood,
I had to prop my eyelids all the way back home,
just so I could watch her as she drove along,
she showed me the back way,
and it's much quicker than the interstate,
I knew that she would never stay,
but you take what you get from somebody like that'
Doesn't that paint a picture of person whose zest for life is so infectious that you can't help by be taken in, even if you know that you don't have the dynamic nature to satisfy her for long?
We have all known someone like that, unless you are someone like that...
Java 13 - An unreleased song that was written for a songwriting contest, about longing for the simple days when you were younger. In this case he writes about the "old days" when he almost exclusively played coffee shops for tips and a free drink. The first verse and chorus:
I wanna go back to the small cafe, when all I needed was a place to play,
I had fifteen songs and some nights no one came,
I made tips and my tea was free, (I) sold tapes for 10 bucks apiece,
I was in love with a song that I wrote for a girl who hardly knew my name, and it felt
simple, like a movie, where you know, when the credits roll, it'll be okay,
simple as your birthday, with music and free cake..
It has a great slice of life feel and some great lyrics!
Skyler - From one of his early albums, this is the first song that got me hooked on Brad's music, and the one mentioned in
Java 13. I have heard live recordings of this song where the audience sings along, in tune and will all the lyrics perfect. It is impressive! It is a slice-of-life story about a bike ride in the country, when he ran into a local sculptor's house and workshop and stopped in to look around, then was approached by their precocious daughter who was likely 7 or 8 at the time, who acts as his tour-guide to her parent's work. The song is his way of paying her back. The chorus goes:
Skyler, fly - talk to total strangers like you've known them all your life, and
Skyler, try - please try to stay that way a little while..
I was so intrigued by this song that I decided to find out if "Megan Skyler Breenden" was a real person, and found that not only is she real, but she actually does a web comic, named
Puppetry. It is nothing special, but is occasionally clever, and at least one refers to the song. But from that I also found her older sister's semi-autobiographical web-comic:
The Devil's Panties. It is a very enjoyable comic, and Jennie Breeden is a pretty good artist. Not surprising, as both of their parents are artists...
Earring - Another slice-of-life piece off of one of his early albums, this takes the story of finding a lone earring on the sidewalk, and turns it into a song that evokes all the emotion of unrequited love, self deception, and the distance between us. The chorus:
but there are no holes in me
where I could hang an earring,
though I was pierced where you will never see
I could clip it on my sleeve beside my obvious affections,
a random little cufflink from the street..
Lazarus - This is probably my favorite of his songs. It appears to be a light little piece making a pun about the closing of a store with the same name as the title, and the story from the bible about Jesus raising his friend from the dead when he had arrived to late to heal him.
read the paper any morning, something's bound to fail,
sad to see the store was closing, everything's for sale,
Jesus raised the dead, but that does not affect the retail player
named after his friend, and I'll confess that I have never shopped there,
Lazarus, come forth, there's no cause for remorse..
Then comes the second verse, where we discover that the song is at least partly about how messed up the priorities of the world are:
and a daughter lost her father, that was on page 12,
(he) played in bands I used to follow, younger than myself,
I cannot pretend to understand the way the time gets passed out,
will the unborn son check out his father's website, just to find out
what his dad was like? that hardly seems right..
There is a palpable sense of sadness in the song, and I have trouble listening to it without a tear coming to my eye. The juxtaposition of the cover story being about a retail failure and the death of a local musician who died in the prime of his life is buried back on page 12 speaks volumes, and Brad manages to deliver a stinging inditemend of society in a package that never feels heavy handed or mean spirited. Brilliant songwriting!
Even if you usually don't like folk music, I suggest giving his stuff a listen!
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